Column: Quit playing Santa Claus with other people's money

When he was a high-ranking conservative Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, Mike Pence was a chief critic of Washington’s out-of-control spending and growing debt. Now that he is Indiana’s governor, Pence is dependent on the same federal largesse that he bemoaned.

Most Hoosiers would be surprised to know that under Pence’s first budget proposal, federal funds would have accounted for around 35 percent of state spending.

Indiana state government is not unique in this regard, and Pence’s predecessor, Mitch Daniels, was similarly dependent on federal money. Indeed, Daniels signed an executive order on his first day in office creating the state Office of Federal Grants and Procurement to increase Indiana’s take from the federal honey pot.

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